Greens senator Barbara Pocock has called on Finance Minister Katy Gallagher to cut PricewaterhouseCoopers from one of its panels, continuing her push for the Albanese government to closely scrutinise its spending on consultants.
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Senator Pocock wrote to the Ms Gallagher last Wednesday, requesting the firm be removed from a pool of consultants used for management advisory services.
The senator has also successfully called for an inquiry into consulting services this year, with a report to be prepared by the Finance and Public Administration References Committee in September.
Senator Pocock's letter followed a senior figure at PricewaterhouseCoopers leaking confidential government information to other staff at the firm.
Former head of international tax for the company's Australian office Peter-John Collins was banned from practising as a tax agent for two years after the Tax Practitioner's Board found he revealed privileged information on the ATO's multinational tax avoidance strategy.
Senator Pocock said this instance indicated the firm could not meet the government's own criteria for inclusion on the Management Advisory Services Panel, which agencies draw from.
"[Removing them] would send a message to the big consultants, or anyone who breaches the confidentiality requirements, that there are consequences when they act against the interests of the government," she said.
"At present, it's very unclear that there are any real commercial direct costs for such a significant breach of confidentiality."
She also referred to evidence heard at the robodebt royal commission that the firm, which was commissioned to write a report about the unlawful debt-raising scheme in 2017, was never required to produce its final written report.
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Questioned by Senator Pocock about the issue in Senate estimates last month, Senator Gallagher responded: "Ministers do not have control over the awarding of contracts, nor should they.
"Those panel arrangements are not matters that ministers determine. They are matters appropriately handled at the departmental level."
A spokesman for PricewaterhouseCoopers said: "We are immensely proud of the work we do to support the Australian government to solve some of the most complex and important challenges facing our country."